NEWS Panasonic Supports its First Smart City Project in Germany Panasonic reveals innovations at IFA, from Smart City to 4K, from beauty care to Blu-ray, from OLED TV to steam microwave oven combos … Panasonic’s press conference follows its theme of "A Better Life, A Better World." At its IFA press conference, Panasonic explained its key role in starting up a smart residential project “Future Living Berlin” in the capital’s Adlershof district, bringing its Smart City expertise to Germany for the first time. The company presents this smart residential project with its 69 smart home apartments in an interactive exhibition space at IFA. In other “local news,” the Berlin Phil Media GmbH came on stage to talk about its partnership with Panasonic for technical support for the Digital Concert Hall that brings the Berlin Philharmoniker to an increasingly global audience. Both announcements served to underline Panasonic’s technology from commercial, industrial and professional areas extends into various consumer markets. On stage, Yuki Kusumi, VP Appliances at Panasonic had no trouble segueing from the Berlin Philharmoniker’s 4K streaming to beauty care. For Panasonic there is the thread of underlying mission and overlapping technologies. Panasonic beauty care business in Japan is significant and some of its product line is now tailored to Europeans. A microfoaming cleansing device and anti-aging beauty enhancer will be available across Europe from October. There is also a new automatic laundry folding machine, aptly named “Laundroid.” Panasonic is showcasing at IFA its new ’Experience Fresh’ small kitchen appliance range with products such as the Panasonic NN-DS596M Combination Steam Microwave Oven. Also in the home, Panasonic is tackling OLED’s most demanding challenges: near-black reproduction (applying Panasonic’s knowhow in self-illuminating panel technology from plasma TVs). Visitors to Panasonic can see the DMP-UB700 Ultra HD Blu-ray Player supporting High Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging—as well as the HC-X1 camcorder with 4K 60p/50p recording, a 24mm 20x optical zoom lens and a 1.0-type (inch) sensor. From Smart City to smart living, the press conference clearly shows Panasonic wants its IFA audience to know the wide gamut of its technology as well as new products. Hall 5.2 Stand 101 Future living Berlin www.ifa-international.org IFAInternational • Friday 2 nd September 2016 23
